How to connect my 2nd Gen AppleTV to my receiver

Bought a 2nd gen Appletv yesterday. I would like to stream music from my iMac to my home theater system. My home theater system is 14 years old and I do not wish to change it as it is a $15,000 custom system.

I do not have an OPTICAL AUDIO port on my receiver that is connected to my TV. How do I stream music from my iMac to my receiver in this case? What are my options? Is there a backward compatible cable available?

If the AppleTV does not serve the purpose of letting me stream music to my receiver, I will return it so based on this answer, I will be making a hard choice.

Bought a 2nd gen Appletv yesterday. I would like to stream music from my iMac to my home theater system. My home theater system is 14 years old and I do not wish to change it as it is a $15,000 custom system.

I do not have an OPTICAL AUDIO port on my receiver that is connected to my TV. How do I stream music from my iMac to my receiver in this case? What are my options? Is there a backward compatible cable available?

If the AppleTV does not serve the purpose of letting me stream music to my receiver, I will return it so based on this answer, I will be making a hard choice.

To be honest, and I don't know what your setup looks like, but simply replacing your receiver with a new one might be the way to go - I'm guessing if you have no digital inputs, it probably doesn't do digital surround sound processing nor can handle any HD A/V switching. That shouldn't be too disruptive to your system, either.

I have one of the in-between models from the early 2000s that has digital audio (3 optical, 1 coax), but only composite or S-Video for the video side of things. I just use my TV to switch between HDMI inputs.

Bought a 2nd gen Appletv yesterday. I would like to stream music from my iMac to my home theater system. My home theater system is 14 years old and I do not wish to change it as it is a $15,000 custom system.

I do not have an OPTICAL AUDIO port on my receiver that is connected to my TV. How do I stream music from my iMac to my receiver in this case? What are my options? Is there a backward compatible cable available?

If the AppleTV does not serve the purpose of letting me stream music to my receiver, I will return it so based on this answer, I will be making a hard choice.

Any ideas? I researched on the web without any answers.

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If you dont have the digital input, you will need one of the above mentioned adapter boxes.. But if your system is 14 years old, its safe to say, it "was" a $15,000 custom system.

Electronics prices fall like a stone, and although audio holds its value better than video, you would be amazed at what 1500 - 2000 gets you in an audio receiver these days. (even 800 -1200 is good territory)

Just out of curiosity... why so attached to 14 year old receiver? I'm assuming you have a HDTV or you wouldn't be getting an ATV2. With a new receiver you are opening yourself up to a new audio experience with the HD Audio Files that a bluray has. And you don't have to spend an arm and a leg like you did before.

If you have cat5 cables between your Mac & Receiver, I bought some little boxes (called balun) that would take (Mac) audio out, pump it through cat5 wiring (one run of cat5) then return it to stereo out. This was around Y2K before TV's, Airport Expresses, etc. existed, but it did work very well with my old receiver (that lacked all of the modern inputs).

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